Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't.

One should adpot only those situations in which one is in no need of sham virtues, but rather, like the tight-rope dancer on his tight rope, in which one must either fall or stand--or escape.

Curiosity creeps into the houses of the unfortunate and the needy under the name of duty or of pity.

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

The great wars of the present age are the effects of the study of history.

The will to incessant creation is vulgar, betraying jealousy, envy, and ambition. Assuming that you are something, there is really nothing that you need to do-and yet you do a great deal. Above the "productive" man there is still a higher type.

From passions grow opinions; intellectual laziness lets these harden into convictions.